St. John's Moves Up In USA Today Coaches' Poll

 

Dylan Darling made this running jumper to give St. John's a 10-0 lead early Saturday night. Photo by Jason Schott.

The St. John's Red Storm won the Big East Regular Season and Tournament Champions, and that has resulted in a jump up to No. 9 in the USA Today Coaches' Poll.

St. John's won the Big East Tournament on Saturday night when they beat Connecticut, 72-52, in a dominant performance in which they led wire-to-wire.

St. John's has an overall record of 26-6, and they only lost two games in Big East play in the regular season before winning all  three games at the Tournament by double-digits.

The Red Storm are off to San Diego as the fifth seed in the East Regional of the NCAA Tournament. Their first game will be on Friday against 12th-seeded Northern Iowa, with tip off at 7:10 p.m. eastern time on CBS.

The final AP Top 25 Poll of the season was last week's, which was released on March 9.

USA TODAY SPORTS COACHES POLL (released March 15):

RANKING - TEAM - RECORD - POINTS - FIRST-PLACE VOTES:

1. Duke - 32-2 - 770 - 26 

2. Arizona - 32-2 - 744 - 5

3. Michigan - 31-2 - 718

4. Florida - 26-7 - 656

5. Houston - 28-6 - 653

6. Iowa State - 27-7 - 586

7. UConn - 29-5 - 570

8. Virginia - 29-5 - 531

9. St. John's - 28-6 - 514

10. Gonzaga - 30-3 - 470

11. Michigan State - 25-7 - 450

12. Illinois - 24-8 - 437

13. Purdue - 26-8 - 416

14. Nebraska - 26-6 - 395

15. Arkansas - 26-8 - 381

16. Vanderbilt - 26-8 - 316

17. Kansas - 23-10 - 242

18. Alabama - 23-9 - 239

19. Texas Tech - 22-10 - 228

20. Wisconsin - 24-10 - 189

21. North Carolina - 24-8 - 149

22. Saint Mary's - 27-5 - 103

23. Miami-FL - 25-8 - 76

24. Louisville - 23-10 - 56

25. Tennessee - 22-11 - 55

Schools Dropped Out: No. 20 Miami (OH)

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES: Miami - OH (36), UCLA (31), Utah State (23), BYU (14), Villanova (11), Saint Louis (7), VCU (5), South Florida (1), Santa Clara (1), Ohio State (1), Akron (1).